A class given by Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami during the 2014 Mauritius Innersearch. He discusses the power of the Guru and guru bhakti, and invites a guest swami, Swami Parameshananda, to give a short talk on the subject.

Unedited Transcript:

So there is a great poet Kabir who long long time ago wrote, something some of you who get my emails already know this that, but not all of you get my emails. He said this beautiful thing. Can you turn that down a little bit Sivanatha? Thank you.

He said if all of the forest return to pens to write with, if all of the oceans return to ink to be used with the pens, and if all of the earth return to paper to write upon, still it wouldn't be enough to write of the glories of the Guru. Unless we write endlessly and endlessly and it would not suffice to give full expression to the importance and the centrality of the Guru in our tradition. So, today, we are gonna have stories about Guru Bhakti and Guru, the importance of Guru in our lives, and I will tell you couple of stories I think some of you have never heard.

One of the small ,one of the small downsides of Guru being around us for so long long time is you hear about stories [Chuckles]. So, would you hand me the puzzle and the , and the signs that is right there on the stage? Oh, I should explain to those who weren't on my bus. I am doing the class in Bodinatha's time slot because yesterday, the visuals were so so disappointing, and he worked so so hard some nice[inaudible][?] for us, so we couldn't stand it. So, we were going our on our bus, we opened up the store at 9:00 AM, we were buying some really nice solution so that his class today and for future days presentation will be really the way it is supposed to be. So, I am just filling him in for while the purchase goes on. So, , can you give me the signs.. Please? Does anybody know the definition of a youth in Hindu culture? What's the definition of youth? Yeah, I would say 35-40[ Laughs] something like that. You are a child late into life. So this is a challenge especially for those of us under 30 in the room.

Ok. This is a challenge for us. [laughs]. This is a puzzle. this is a puzzle for guru parampara that is made just for today. It's a 1000 piece puzzle, so it's a , it's not this size, this is just a box, the puzzle, the puzzle is big and It says , life ultimate puzzle, who am I, Where did I come from, where am I going, inner search Mauritius 2014, that's where we are going. So, what we are gonna do, I said , let's help solve this puzzle, let's all work together during the inner search, to complete this challenge of our Guru Parampara, the great stream of spiritual power. So we are going to put this on the table. and all of you, especially who raised your hands, and some of you ,even if you are over 30 raised your hand and when you have, see everyone is finding they are having too much time on their hands [background laughter] [chuckles].So when you have that problem, ,

So yesterday someone sent me an email and said Swami ,you will get a kick out of this. In India, there something called time pass. Have you have heard about that? I just learnt yesterday about time pass. So, time pass is based apparently based on the principle that time is this anguishing sea of endlessness and boredom and so your whole life is spent in just trying to get rid of time and they even have time pass snacks that you eat that are that take more time to eat than usual snacks and you kind of waste your time like peanuts, you that you shell the peanuts shells and so you have time pass peanuts[background laughter]. It's crazy, but that's another level of evolution, human evolution.

Can you imagine? I mean we are not in time pass consciousness at all , any of you, but nevertheless, we are gonna try, and if don't solve it in the hours available we will leave it here at the spiritual park and future of pilgrims and visitors can solve it again and again and again, so I will put this up on the table. Then I brought the impossible one, this is the really impossible puzzle of Iraivan temple and I will put that on table too. Sarika, would you symbolically put that on the table over there?

So going to begin with a little geographic narrow celebration, which then I hope to spend.So It's geographical narrow because today it is July 4th Ah Ha. So what is July 4th? it's the Independence Day in one of those countries. That is in other side of the ocean and1 to a lot of people that's an important date. And I thought, well, we should celebrate July 4th in our way, you know. Independence Day , that's sort of like Moksha, Independence Day is like spiritual liberation, Kaivalya right? freedom.Freedom from the world, freedom from our Karmas, freedom from birth and everything. So, I rewrote, I think I have it here, I re wrote the declaration of Independence for [laughter in background] for. So, for those of you, I have been busy [laughter in background], time passing, [background speaker inaudible] [Sadasivanathswami: Chuckle].

So, We are, we are declaring our independence from fear, declaring independence from hatred, declaring independence from lower consciousness, independence from all of the instinctive things of our life, we are declaring today, like American declared their independence from Britain,, we are declaring independence. So, I am going to read you one, the original and I am gonna read you my declaration of independence, one sentence or so. This is the second sentence of declaration of independence. This Thomas Jefferson, for those we don't know. So Jefferson wrote we hold these truth to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. So I thought was good but I thought he could have done better [Laughter in background].

So here is our version: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are forged in loving divinity, that they are endowed by Siva the creator, preserver and dissolver with life's perfect destinies and among these are light, liberation and the joy of oneness. [Background claps][Chuckles]. I sent that to Washington and they are gonna get back to me [background laughter]. So, first story of the day of a guru in action. We were, we just moved to Kauai Island and Gurudeva was discovering that the islands are very small provincial place, nothing happens there and they roll up the sidewalks like at 6 PM and there is just this, I mean unless you are a fisherman,night fisherman. There is nothing to do at night, and some of the young monks especially got what is called Rock fever if live on the island. Do get Rock fever in Mauritius?Rock fever? .Did they ever talk about that? No, because you have such a big cultural presence, Kauai is just a little village basically.

So, he started taking the monks once every week to the beach, and we go to the beach and play volley ball and and we play volley ball with the local fireman. The fireman loved volleyball, we loved volleyball at that time. So we played sand volleyball and so forth. We were at the beach one day and our outing was Gurudeva and , and I had driven went ins a want , and put all our towels and things on the sand when played volley ball in the sand and we came back.It was at 4 in the afternoon and Gurudeva said lets go back to the monastery as it was time to go home we had been there couple of hours and we all started heading to the Van and I was the driver, [coughs] excuse me, I was the driver and so I had the keys and went to find my keys by the towel and couldn't find my keys.

So, I didn't think that was a problem because it was here somewhere as I left them here in the sand.So I started looking for them and 5-10 minutes past, everyone was sitting inside the car and waiting for me and I am fetching the keys and not finding the keys. So everyone got out the car and came over and said what's wrong asked and I said I can't find my keys. So, well we will wait over here. Gurudeva kind of said, we will wait over here, you find the key that's your job, and we will wait over here it won't take long.

So I started looking for the keys, going through the sand and couldn't fine the keys. Couldn't find the keys and I was starting to getting more,thought this is serious, everyone is waiting and So after I couldn't find them , my , said I have to, have my, this isn't working , I need to be more organized about this, and drew a grid on the sand, 6 inches this way and 6 inches this way, so I knew that I was searching every wouldn't miss anything as I wasn't doing haphazardly, so I went through the whole grid used like you know using 200 little squares. Nothing. Oh this is. Then I scrapped the whole thing and nothing couldn't find it, couldn't find it. This is about an hour and everyone meanwhile was looking over at me like [background laughter].[inaudible]

So I went over to Gurudeva and I said I can't find the keys, I tried this, I tried this , I tried this, I couldn't find the keys and he said , Well, you tried everything with your conscious mind . You tried, I was watching you, you tried everything with your right hand, that's sort of like your conscious mind. So, go over and try something with your left hand. and I went over and put down my left hand in the sand and lifted up the keys. Just one stroke and there was the key. What and amazing thing he could do that you know, guide you in that kind of magical, magical way, so that's one little tiny guru story.

So, I would like now to ask our beloved swami to, are you good from there?, wanna come up here?, yeah. [Background swamis' voice inaudible in parts]

Swami: I was thinking I should remember thing at least what I learnt from the class, so I am gonna do like this that swamiji taught us Take away from tension here, hold the thumb and here and pull hard, watching over the thumb and don't pull hard ok.1 [chuckles, back ground laughter]. ook.

So that was only for me, because I am the only one tense here. [background laughter]. Let us do a little prayer. Om sada siva Samarambham, shankcharya madyamam, asmaracharya pariyantham, vande guru subramanyam., . Vande Guru pranavanadan. Vande Guru Param Param.

What have there is to recollect our lineage for both Ashrams. Swamiji's ashram the one I belong to and we sing o lord siva you were at the beginning with old form and then out of your will you took form and you created this old universe. And then you came again in the middle as Adi Sankaracharya and to revive this ancient tradition that's creative magic miracle that you did and now you are here as the param guru, spiritual masters of the current time. And I must say that the Kauai Ashram is in that lineage, because they wouldn't have been such a dynamic organization of our Shankar where so many things are happening, it is not happening out of the will of a person ,but all the swamijis are instruments in the hands of that almighty Siva. And when we can think like that , you also, that's why you are here at inner search to get this get this feeling that's all it's all about , and [um] we are here to let go and allow.Letting go meaning, everything that is mundane and allowing one thing that we become the gods and goddess that we already are. So we are here to crack the layers that is covering gods and goddesses and that's the allowing. , and it so nice we are here and we have really no mundane.. routine duties. Thats why swamiji had brought you so far away and made all the nice arrangements, so all that you have to do is to let go . Thats all you have to doand allow ,and all the programs and the yoga , the teachings, so please do that. Just let go and allow.

So we will do that together now. We will do a nice Bhajan and that I will sing a verse and it is dedicated to Guru and it is very rhythmical so you can join in the chorus and you can do like this also when its time. ok. So , let us try to take out everything else from our mind. so this one minute.

Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam. Let's do it together, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam.[background claps , background chorus] Tumi Gyana daata, Tumi Shakti daata, Tumi Gyana daata, Tumi Shakti data, Tumi Shanti daata, Tumi Mukti Daata[background claps],Tumi Shanti daata, Tumi Mukti Daata[background claps], tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam.[background claps , background chorus]

Now we will do it again, and I want you to be very creative, So when you are singing it, all the bhakti that you can muster out from your self. You think about the words and make a [ham] symbolic sign of the words.ok, So we Guru Mata Pita, so what would be a sign for Mother?, Mata Pita, think of a sign and then you do it. Guru band Sakha, tere charno me mera Koti pranam. So you imagine Swamiji, and you want to bow to swamiji, because swamiji is perfect instrument in hands of Guru, so you imagine bow to swamiji, because in him, he is representing , Nandinath swamiji. From the beginning and present Guru swami Subramaniamji. So , you have to swamiji as that, and try to let go all that you are, and allow that divine power that he can radiate to all of us, the common permeator of whole being. So we understand what we need to do? Let go empty and allow divine energy to permeate our whole being. ok. Let's do this try again, be creative and facial ,hand movement , be creative individually how you will surrender yourself. ok, So, let's try .

Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, again, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam.[inaudible chorus in background] Koti pranam, I bow to you. endless time. This is a continuation of this sadhana of bowing. So, let's try it again. be more creative and , and lively ok, this is the only thing is in your being now. Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam

Tumi Gyana daata, Gyaan knowledge, so daata means giving,Tumi Gyana daata, Tumi Shakti daata, power not force, power is a divine thing , its subtle, you cannot get it no other way but to surrender, Tumi Gyana daata, Tumi Shakti data, Tumi , Gyaan ,Tumi Gyaan daata, Tumi Mukti Daata, Mukti liberation, Tumi Shanti daata, Tumi Mukti Daata,tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam. Now is do, let's do it together. We have got it down, let's do it to a nice tempo. The clapping is to be Rhythmical and then we got to give up everything. ok.Only thing I am asking you to do. Let's try it. 1, 2 3.

Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam

Tumi Sadhana, Tumi Aaradhana,Tumi Saadhana, Tumi Aaradhana, tumi premarana, tumi karuna , tumi premarana, tumi karuna , Tumi pranapati, tumi raksha mere, Tumi pranapati, tumi raksha mere, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam. Tumi Bee daata, Tumi param pita, Tumi Bee daata, Tumi param pita, Tumi Rajadhiraj, Guru Maharaj, Tumi Rajadhiraj, Guru Maharaj, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, Guru mata Pita, Guru bandhu sakha, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam, tere charno me Guru mera Koti pranam.[background claps]

Very nice, see, that's all we have to do. Let go and allow, but we don't want to let go and not wanting to let go is a mundane thing, we want to hold on to the mundane things, and here in this retreat, this inner search, that's what we need to let go and allow, and when we do that and if were able to let go 100 % and allow 100% ,it's an, its an equation, the more you let go the more you allow that's the scale start tipping things, you let go of the mundane things and then divine guidance start to guide you and in that effort, god will recognize, Guru will recognize it and then his grace will come, because without guru's grace nothing will happen.

So, we know , now we know how to get the guru's grace, because many times when you go to swamiji satsang, this is bothering me thats why, and then we recognize you don't wanna let go and yesterday I was talking to one of the devotees and I had to use this word, but die while you are alive. Try to die while you are alive because you will have to , you will have, that's is experience death while you are alive and if you that then you will understand that when you leave this mold, body the you will be all alone and by dying while you are alive is preparation for this life and the one after because when you are there all alone the only person who can be with you is god. and your devotee, guru. Guru will be there. Not your father not the, no human relationship will be there . so, if you transfer that love and devotion and attachment from all you human relationship to the guru while you are alive.

Now you might say swamiji what you are telling to not be serving my husband or my wife. I bow to my husband as god and everything like that, what do you telling me? my mother and father and everything . No, I am not saying. What I am saying is you have to do your duty to all this human relationships . Perfect duty, but they say that you do the duty with this hand, this right hand is holding on to the guru's feet and you never let go because the moment you let go, you are lost. And many of us are lost, you might be gaining mundane life . lots of money, all the fanciness, all the necessities but we are still lost. and that's we are here for the inner search to find ourselves on the island. So, this is my message to you today for this period that you are here.Let go and allow and die while you are alive. The lotus feet of Guruji and bow and we know guru to be guru Brahma, guru Vishnu, guru devo Maheshvara, Guru dev param Brahma Tasmai Gurave namaha. Dyaan mulam gurumoorthi, pooja mollam guru padam. Mantra moolam Guru vachyam , moksha moolam guru krupa.

So everything is in the mercy of the guru and swamiji we have to honor him for taking the responsibility and the dedication and all the monks of the Kauai Ashram and its a bonified[?] ashram and I can vouch to that. and is so Bharat seva ashram chain.and we see no difference and we have silently being comparing our Ashrams and then we have given expressions to the similarities because they are both from lord Siva lineage and our relationship is becoming one . So, Swamiji thank you for giving me this opportunity to give expression.[Sadasivanathaswami : oh, thank you][claps in background]

Sadasivanathswami:Swami doesn't know that Yogaswami said the same things in slightly different, said , he said die before you die. Die before you die.[Chuckles]Remember that?

You know you have to best of you ego which frees you from everything else, the ego can be diminished, diminished, purified, purified, clarified , filled with life and finally let go as swami said. Then you own the world, then you are no longer are limited to a personality or individuality as swamiji said you become a divine that we all are. He also didn't mention that I wanted to mention that one of the reasons that we are so close apart from our love of Siva , is his guru Paramanand Maharaj was very much like Gurudeva. He is a large powerful man and he was a bold outspoken Hindu. While all of the swamis around him were kind of poohing the H word, Paramanandaswami Maharaj was told his devotees , you shout it from the roof top you are a Hindu , you are proud Hindu and we are going to tell the world this and that was a very strong part of his message and he was a big force behind the independence movement in India. He, his power , his spiritual power, I believe was partly responsible for India's liberation, release liberation, India's July 4th. if you will. Wasn't he? [Swami speaking in background voice inaudible]and the other thing he didn't say that I am going to say is that we share, we share is that we share the knowledge that the guru saved our lives, that the guru saved us from ourselves and he and I have ,both have the notion in life that without the guru we would be useless , worth less and wouldn't have been worth the birth, you what I am thinking[chuckles], so that something that we share, very much appreciate your presence swami , not just this morning but every day.

I tried to get this on my IPad , IPhone but the Wi-Fi wasn't working this morning. My, here is my glasses. Oh[background voice inaudible:chuckles] thank you .

Wanted to tell a story about deceit. Gurudeva was was very much against fraudulent gurus and he was very much against gurus who were very much in it for themselves. and trying to just use their disciples to make them more important, more powerful,clean their ashrams, fill their coffers for whatever reasons, and he felt that that was such a profound slur on Sanathan Dharma and anytime he saw that he just pushed it away from us and taught his monks to , to never allow that kind of force to be in our presence in our life.

So, on one of the inner searches, we were told that there is a great Siddhar, who could do really magical things and he happened to be the guru of someone who is very close to us in India and who we trusted and So Gurudeva said , well he is probably authentic. and so let's visit him . His name was Pandrimalya swami. if you ever heard that name, and so, we went to his Ashram, all 65 of us and we were greeted and walked into the ashram and, so we walked in he did this unusual thing,.He greeted each one individually. He drew them close and kind of whispered prognostication into their ear. and according to some of the reports that I later got these were kind of uncannily accurate. which was interesting and so he had some kind of intuitive power there obviously, and that's probably why he kind of became famous as the magic, magic man[chuckles]. And in India as you all know, magic is a big magnet and you know , tell me my future, tell me know,heal me, all of that is a powerful powerful force, much more common than the force that draws all of you here, which is a yearning for god, yearning for truth, you don't me to heal me or tell you your future and I am not going to do it anyway and I can't do it anyway. But Pandrimalya swami was said to have this power.

So we went there and did that. And then he had a routine, he brought each on up to a little pandal he made in his room and he would go like this and something magically would drop in their hands kind of Saibaba syndrome. I wrote an editorial once called the tale of two cities. [laughter]. It was a good editorial, tale of two cities. So, it was different things , flowers would come, I think some jewels would drop into one devotees hand and so forth. This was all, and this was looking authentic, I must tell you, this was a very convincing experience and so then came my turn. He drew me up to him and for some reason he closed a little curtain when I, he had a little curtain there, a little cloth thing he closed it and he went like this , he closed it in front of me and I looked at his hands , and in his hands I could see he had palmed a brown paper bag , a small one, and he was going like this , but he was opening the paper bag and then he asked me to put my hands out and I put my hands out and he dropped a candy, white sugar candy into my hands , a white sugar candy like hard candy into my hands , and he looked at me and smiled at me and said some sweet words then he turned the curtain and went back.

So we got one the bus and went back to the hotel, and I told Gurudeva , said you know when we were behind the curtain, I was looking at swami's hands and he was opening up a little paper bag that he had palmed to put the candy in my hands and Gurudeva said , are you sure ? and I said , I am very sure what I saw ,. he said that's too bad[laughter in background] ,and said that won't do at all. So then , on the way to the hotel, I think it was an hour and half or something, he developed the whole plan which he told me and said when we get back to the hotel in Chennai, and here is what I want you to do. I want you to reach out and find who is the best magician in town,and I want you to hire him and I want you to bring him to the hotel tonight and perform for us all,and I want him to do that trick if he can. that particular trick.

So I reached out and I found a magician, a really good one as it turned out, and he came to the hotel and after dinner we had this big performance and the magician called up some of the inner searchers on the stage and did the palming business and Gurudeva asked me to tell all of the inner searchers what happened at the ashram earlier that day and he gave this excoriating scolding to the universe about fraudulent acts like that and he scolded the the friend who is the disciple, Padrimalya swami's disciple was there and he scolded him and the disciple in his defense , basically said, btw , a scolding from Gurudeva, you could, you will just be fried. you don't want to ever be scolded by Gurudeva. He didn't do it often, but he did it really well and he could just awaken so much fire, it's amazing and he focused that fire on this man and his man in defense was so , so sorry, that it had happened and he confessed to Gurudeva right there ,publically that they all know that this is the act, but that they allows it and rationalize it because as it as he said it lives the faith of common person, It give the common person the faith that something more to life, you know, there is power, and magic and so on and so forth, and it that was the excuse and Gurudeva just tore into him again and said that is the worst excuse I have heard in my life . He said, you can't lift somebody's faith by lying to them, by deceiving them, by doing this fraudulent act in in front of them.That is not lifting anybody that is just a deceit. Plain and simple.

So,that's how Gurudeva looked at fraudulence,and he also was very much again gurus who gave initiations at a whim, you know.Come to them and ok have a two day seminar, and get and enlightenment certificate,take it home to your friends or for example, I met a Sadhu in India once from the Rajneesh Osho group and I was, I was so young and naive and I put my hands together and said tell me about you Guru and tell me how , what is your sadhana and he said what? What practices , what training did you go through and I am interested and he said , no I was living in New York and wrote to Rajneesh and he said me my robes in the mail[laughter in the background] in the mail.Thats easy. [speaker in background, voice inaudible, laughter] oh.

Oh, but Gurudeva was very much against that as you can imagine against that because it is so shallow, meaningless, to trivialize it of the real true powerful tradition and he fought against that a lot and on the other side of it he gave great credence to those who were the true Gurus, who would follow the traditional and didn't modernize it and didn't adapt it, didn't it weaken it, didn't dilute it . He gave them , yes: [question from background speaker inaudible] Anybody outside of Hinduism you mean? Oh yeah[chuckles, background laughter] but that will be for another day. So, Swami said , Guru is very important in the sense that , he is the, how to describe it. He is sort of captain of our ship .

So, we'll make a ship . So the ocean is all of our experience of our worldly life, and when you get to the point you wanna go off shore, everyone lives on the shore and they are happy there, doing their common things doing or their worldly mundane things, but then maybe you have an yearning, spiritual yearning that you want to go beyond that shore and that yearning takes you to a voyage and so you get on a ship ,and the ship sort of the parampara, let's make the ship Parampara, so then you have to have a ship you so don't wanna jump from ship to ship either. You get on a ship and stay on a ship. [chuckles]. Stay on the ship, and then all of the crew members are your fellow bhakta who are working with you and you can't run the ship without that crew right?, it's not enough to have that one yearning sailor and one captain , you need more, you need more , so you need a whole crew and you are like the crew . Like we share that. Our fellow ship is , Gurudeva would say that group helps the individual and the individual helps the group and so we all the shared crew on my imaginary ship of spirituality right now and then the Guru is the captain and he is the one who knows the destination and he is the one who can read all the navigation charts also right? the crew can't read the navigations charts they haven't be trained and they don't know, also they don't know all the dangers of sailing .He has been sailing back and forth, he has run aground a few times , he has weathered the storms, probably had pirates come after him[background laughter]. definitely had pirates , they had leak in the ship that they had to repair,and then the winds tore the sail and he had to learn to mend the sails , probably , then he ran out of food probably on one voyage, [speaker in background inaudible]

Sadasivanathswami: Ho ho.. there is a lot of mutiny going on and so the captain had a lot of this wonderful experience. that will take us through good time and bad times ,and then he reads the chart and we just do our little jobs. You know maybe mend the ropes or we swab the deck or we make the meals or something, but meantime, as we do these simple things , just kind of mundane things, our ship is going towards the destination. We have been carried towards the destination automatically,[background speaker: and the shortest distance]and the shortest distance, probably we are not going to get lost if we listen to the captain and give him his authority.

And if you are on ship like that, unlike this imaginary ship[laughter][background speaker: I am enjoying this], [Sadasivanathaswami laughs]if you are on a ship like that you have a nice calm day and sunshine and wind blowing in the right direction you are not learning anything it's just you are making progress but it's the days where you have a storm or you have pirates back again that you learn and become a better better crew[background speaker voice : Take you out of your comfort zone,1inaudible] yes , very uncomfortable, but you learn to grow and , and find new strengths that you did not have before, but the challenge is bring that out , unless we have to respond or we will all die on this particular ship, And , so he is the captain of the ship and very important party , he is one person in the ship that you can't do without. everyone else one by one could get off and the ship would be alright but if the captain gets off that's it. Just all is lost ,might as well tie it up at the dock and go home[chuckles][background speaker but not even to get to the dock],but not even get to the dock[ laughter]. We should go on the road with this[laughter].[background speaker voice inaudible] I can [laughter] save what .[background speaker; voice inaudible]. oh ok the digital road, we go on the digital road.

So, you as take the analogy to another world , I was loving to listen to all the chatter on my bus coming here to the spiritual park today, there was surprising amount of enthusiastic animated conversation going on ,which is great, and the reason its enduring to me is that it is all of you getting to know each other , sharing your life stories , sharing your spiritual quest and learning from each other and that's so important that fellowship that togetherness, and because you are going to strengthen each our other's journey. What I tell the young monks, get home , what I tell them that self-realization is basically, it is the hardest thing that human being can try to do. Everything else pales by comparison, that it's the most profound, lofty thing of human life and consciousness and therefore it's hard . It's not easy. whether you are in monastery or not in the monastery ,it's not easy and you need help. I would say you need help. for example, if you ever wanted to climb mount Everest, you wouldn't put on a backpack and put on some nice shoes from Amazon.com[ background laughter] and head off to mount Everest. You would die. There is no question at all. Oh you would. No one has ever ever succeeded in climbing mount Everest alone.

You need a whole team of Sherpas to get to this base camp , another team to get to that base camp, a smaller team to get to the final base camp. and then you need the most experienced people in the world that you decide to set last assault on the summit. and if something happens along the way , let's say you slip and hurt your ankle, if you are along that would be it , just freeze to death , but if you are not alone , I can come to you and I could carry you back to the tent and take of your ankle and the next day I get the flu, I never get the flu but I could have and that's was joke[ laughter] and you take care of me, we help each other to climb this mountain. We need each other on this path, this path to the divine, and its very important, and you all want to develop really good relationship with Bodinatha and swamis and relationships that are real in your life , and not play pretend or formal. or what Gurudeva would call, Guru who is just a picture on the wall. Hi Guru, I love you . No you want a relationship that is meaningful that gets you through life's challenges that you can go to him when you don't have enough money and talk about that, you can go to him when you struggling with some personal character thing and talk to him about , and so that there is some real back and forth and not just and imaginary one on your side with your hands folded. and unless you have that engagement it is not as real , lets put it that way. It's not as functional and not, not as helpful to you too. Ok, enough on that. So , make [inaudible].

So wanna talk about, this a story, this besides our ship of imagination, this is the only story that is not real, it's just a story. This is a story about expectation , when you come to the Satguru and we all come to him for from different places in our lives at different times in our lives and we all have different expectations about who he is and what our needs are that you know we go and thinking we are going to get something , but my experiences is that are our expectations are usually wrong. They are usually in the beginning they are usually wrong . This is a story about that. so, story is , in India, there was a young man , very athletic and I think he was about 19 years or 20 years old and he was a swordsman, that is an athlete and he was a swordsman. and he was very good swordsman and but wanted to be better as he was not the best and everyone wants to be the best. So he wanted to be the best and went to one of his coaches and asked his coach,you know, how can do better, how can be better swordsman and win all my tournaments, and coach said well you are already very good and there is this one fellow who is better he is kind of retired now , if I were you , I would go and train with him. for while.I think he has the ability to improve your skillset. So he said where does he live,?

Got on his horse and of he went, he went for few days and ended up in this little village ,asked around for the retired swords master, and he said of he lives in a little garden hut over at the edge of the village . So, he went over to the edge of the village and village got off his horse and went to his little garden and some gardener was in there and he went up to the gardner and said I am looking for the master swordsman and the gardener said well he is not here right now. Said, ok. What should I do , you just wait here in the garden , maybe you wanna pick some weeds or something, and you could do that to keep yourself busy. So , ok

So, he was picking some weeds and all of a sudden whack, someone came behind him and hit him in the thigh with a bamboo rod. That would hurt . He wealed around and there was a gardener there and said what are you doing? I thought I just wanted to get your attention . I wanted to tell you that I am actually the person that you are looking for . [background laughter].I am the. I am the swordsman and I kind of like you and if you want to stay here and help me in the garden for a few days, then we can do some training in your sword work and I can see you have some things to learn, would you like to stay in the garden and help me. Well, he said, yes, if you don't hit me[laughter in background]. So , we will see about that.

So, he stayed in the garden and he was plucking beans the next morning, Whack, he got another whack in the back, he wealed around and he saw the gardener walking away. The swordsman. about couple of hours later, he was doing something in the garden and whoack he walked up the swordsman and he said are you crazy[laughter in background]? what's the matter with you, I come to learn something and you are , you are come up on me and whacking me and hurting me.

The gardener just looked at him and just walked away. The next day , again, he started, but this time it was different. This time the young man started listening ,but he didn't want to get whacked. He started listening , and he heard the gardener walking on dry leaves[ mimics walking on dry leaves sound], so he turned around and there he was ready to whop him , so the young swordsman , looked at him, and what I got you and gardener walked away. So, then later that afternoon, he missed it and he got whacked again. then he started being moping more subtle, started watching how the birds were acting because he knew when the birds got quite that mean the swordsman was coming after him , then he started feeling the wind seeing if he could smell the gardener coming towards him watching for shadows, watching if the Gardner was casting any shadows. and after 3 days the Gardner couldn't get him anymore.

So, young man said , ok , are we ready now to start our training? Said, we just finished it. So what do you mean? So , get on your horse and go away I am done. He got on his horse and didn't have any clue what had happened and went off and went to his life and entered the next tournament and all of a sudden he was such an anticipatory strategist with his sword he knew ever move ,and he anticipated every subtle gesture to the point where nobody could get to him, just like the gardener could no longer get to him he learnt something he had learned to awaken his senses, to be subtle, to be observant and so he had actually received the training that he needed but didn't receive the training that he expected.

So, we go to the guru like that. We think we need to be trained in pranayama and Kundalini yoga meditation, some people think that way. But maybe that's not what they really need. Maybe the guru like the Gardner knows what they need and gives them that instead. Even though, so they are being trained in a way that maybe they don't know quite yet but later when they are in the tournament of life let's say, they will learn that they have been given an amazing gift of training and Swami..

Swami: when last night when we went to the friends' house that was Gurus training at work, because why should you go there and guru is allowing you to [um] I was trying to figure it out why Bodinatha swamiji was allowing us to go there and the young monks and myself were talking also and were saying this is well this very unusual that monks are going there and there will be wine and alcohol being served. Why is he doing this? So it kind of related with the story that swamiji is telling with the swordsman and the person wanting to learn the sword ship that in that moment and we all and the young monks were saying why is Bodinatha swamiji doing that , but we have to work in an environment and these environments will be coming up for them and so it is best to have it exposed to it in the presence of the guru and I could see that we all are observant of each other last night. How we behave , [laughter in back ground] , right ? Everybody is looking over , you are looking over what are the swamijis doing , and we are looking and seeing what are and how are we doing there so this is , that was the part of the inner , inner training that you are having. So, nothing is being wasted here, through[ inaudible] and that I was observing also and swamiji is here and Kauai Ashram there is modern I have to say they are more up to date than Bharat seva Ashram sanctity to be with current day situation . and when swamijis is saying how to go to Guru . It has to be an act of surrender.

Don't go with an attitude that oh you are going to test the wit of the Guru. You are asking questions and you think you know the answer. If you are going to ask the question like that where you think you know the answer, don't ask that question. because you are going there with not letting go and allow. and I wanted you to remember that. let go and allow, and next one is swamiji is its we suffer because when we be taken out of our comfort zone and you will be taken out of you comfort zone by being disciple of this ashram because if you are in a comfort zone you will never learn, because if you suffer is know that you are being taken out of you comfort zone, out of mundane comfort zone and you will go in that straight path that the ship swamiji has alluded , and don't be a pirate[laughter], don't mute, don't be a mutiny, just what job you are asked to do, serve on the ship you serve very nicely.

Sadasivanathaswami: I was going to tell a different story but I am gonna tell, since you said all of that, so last night was my second cocktail party in 25 years[laughter] in this, thank you, thank you .1990 was my first cocktail party in Kremlin in Moscow with Gurudeva and Gorbochav and some of our friends. [laughter], and , yeah, we hid our robes in the formal cocktail party in the kremlin.

So, last night swamis thoughts is expressed by this story and then we will end. It seemed like there was two Gurus's and Gorbochav and some of our friends one lived in a really nice palace and had a nice entourage and the prime minister would come to him and he had like a thousand elephants and he lived that way, and another Guru lived in mud hut, the one that lived in a mud hut had three disciples and the three disciples were constantly criticizing the other guru, he is all about wealth , and about power and you are so simple and pure and we love you and but you know what's he all about, but wait a minute you don't really know him that well , why don't you go to his palace and spend some time, and then come back and tell me how it went. So, the three of then went over to the palace and said we are Guru Bhai, my Guru sent to spend some time here . Would you allow us?. He said come in we are having big gala event tonight, so I want you to come to it. So , our gala event, last night , I don't know if you know Geraldine, the elderly caterer, lady who did it all, she , she has catered dinners to Nelson Mandela and to Desmond Tutu and all kind of important people in the world and but last night she said the most important people she ever fed my opinion[laughter]. So , he said come in to the Palace. They went in and there was a big party going one and there were girls dancing and they never you know seen a girl almost. Brahamacharis have the strictest kind and the girls were dancing and couldn't afford all their clothes. [laughter, claps] and there was so much food in the room and these two Bramhcharis were feeling very awkward in going in and so said did you see that ?what did you see that? looks what's oh, and the king and the Guru and came up to them and said , I have a little task for you and he said, what's that, he called three of his guards up and asked the guards and he said that would you please draw your swords and guards drew the swords and then he called three more guards and said would you bring me a pot of water, and fill it all the way to the top. They brought three pots of water, so put it on the heads of the three Bramacharies and told the three Bramacharis, now you hold that water and I want you to just walk around the ballroom here and enjoy the party and if you spill one drop of water, the soldier behind you will behead you. [laughter ] .You can imagine how they felt.

So they started walking around the ballroom so focused , so concentrated on the, not even one drop can be spilled. You can't get distracted, you can't,all you have to do is that one thing in order to live , they wanted to live little bit longer, walked around the room and they all came back they hadn't spilled a drop so took it ho, and the king said , as you walked around the room , how many pretty girls were there? oh, there weren't any pretty girls there. Well, how, what was the music that my musicians were playing ? we are the playing music? What kinds of foods did you smell? Was there food? said see, that's how I live here.

I keep my mind on god and don't see any of this . It's all here but I don't want to spill one drop of divinity[chuckles]. Isn't that a nice, it applies to our party last night. that's our final story.

I have , I brought a gift from Kauai and I would like to give it to each of you and and this is some of you have received this gift from me before , but receive it again. and most of you have not. When Gurudeva went through his mahasamadhi I took all of his robes , his kavi robes and I cut them into little pieces vastus and it's been sort of my most precious possession because he wore these robes and they, they have his vibration and we know that it touched his body and he walked in them and I wanna give each of you one of these today because today we are doing stories of the Guru. so, what I would like to do is to have each of you as we end we will end and if you each come up and receive one of these [ question in background inaudible]

Sadasivanathswami: I would[pause] honored to let you be the first. [Chuckles: inaudible]Isn't he wonderful?[Chuckles] Guru Brahma , guru Vishnu, guru deva=o Maheshwara, guru sashay para Brahma , Tasmai sri guruve namaha.[Chorus in background]